[Modeski]

I was given a pair of Peterson speakers a few years ago (not sure the model number):

The rubber around the woofers is seriously disintegrating:

Is it worth repairing them or would I be better off getting some new speakers altogether? I'll be buying an HDTV at the end of the year and want to set up a 5.1 system. My intention was to pair the Petersons with a centre speaker, sub and two ceiling-mounted rears, however I may well be better off getting new fronts altogether.

 

[DogEarz]

The other thing to consider is, how easy is it going to be to find a center speaker that will play well with these? I really don't know anything about Peterson speakers. They may be worth repairing for use in a 2 channel system or to use as surrounds. If I were in your position, I would seriously look into new speakers - at least for the front.

 

[lcaillo]

If you can find the right surrounds it is not that difficult to change them if you are good working with your hands. There are a number of tutorials online regarding this.

 

[SlyJavi]

That's an easy fix.


Any type of silicone caulking with some strips of a plastic bag cut to fit will patch that.


I fixed a subwoofer that looked similar. I was going to buy a woofer repair kit, but after seeing what they consisted of I realized I already had materials to make the repair.


Tips if you do it:


Use a bag made of thick plastic for the repair strips. Cut the repair strips with enough overhang to get the proper curve to match the foam. Use a small amount of krazy glue to tack the repair strips in place. Coat the strips entirely with a thin layer of the silicone blending the patch to the foam. Enjoy.

 

[Timothy91]

Just lookup "speaker repair" online. Some places will fix that for less than $100 for a re-foam job I think. It's not like they are re-wiring the voice coil. That repair should be hard for most repair places.

 

[Tiga]

I did my first re-foam job this past summer on some Boston acoustics bookshelf speakers. It was extremely easy. There is great info out there on how to do it, I think there's even some youtube vids on it. I just bought a kit on fleabay - came with the new foam surrounds, glue, dust caps, applicators and shims for the voice coil. It took about an hour.


Fun project and I love the BA's. If you like these speakers I say try the refoam. With the money you save you can spend it on other components in your system.

 

[jettore]

They should have something here to repair them.
http://www.speakerworks.com/SearchResults.asp

 

[Modeski]

Thanks very much for all the replies, all. I'll check out those links and have a go at repairing them, doesn't seem too difficult if I take my time.


I mostly use these for listening to music/watching music DVDs on my CRT, so until my new house is built it'll be good to get some more listening out of them. It'll give me longer to save up for my surround sound setup as well.


I'll need a new receiver (have some cheapo Sherwood model), but that's another topic for another thread.

 

[Ivan Beaver]



Quote:
Originally Posted by SlyJavi /forum/post/18215629


That's an easy fix.


Any type of silicone caulking with some strips of a plastic bag cut to fit will patch that.


I fixed a subwoofer that looked similar. I was going to buy a woofer repair kit, but after seeing what they consisted of I realized I already had materials to make the repair.


Tips if you do it:


Use a bag made of thick plastic for the repair strips. Cut the repair strips with enough overhang to get the proper curve to match the foam. Use a small amount of krazy glue to tack the repair strips in place. Coat the strips entirely with a thin layer of the silicone blending the patch to the foam. Enjoy.

That is not a good idea. There will be no way to keep the cone aligned. If you only do the small torn area-then the other areas will fail very soon. If part of it has started to fail-the rest will crumble when you touch it.


I have refoamed hundreds of drivers. The only CORRECT way is to replace the whole surround.


There are lots of places that sell kits for pretty cheap.


And doing it the correct way will also be easier-and much cleaner-work thousands of times better-but cost a little bit-but much less than new woofers.

 

[Modeski]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivan Beaver /forum/post/18218380


I have refoamed hundreds of drivers. The only CORRECT way is to replace the whole surround.

Yeah, I'll definitely be replacing the entire surround. Might poke at all the surrounds while I'm there to see if if it'll be worth replacing them all. These have had a good 20 years of use from being in a 2ch hi-fi setup, then the fronts in my in-law's HT setup, and now I've got them. They sound great (well, not at the moment, obviously), so I'd like to resurrect them. I'll probably update this thread when I've done the deed in case anyone is in a similar situation and wants to see how it turned out.

 

[lcaillo]



Quote:
Originally Posted by SlyJavi /forum/post/18215629


That's an easy fix.


Any type of silicone caulking with some strips of a plastic bag cut to fit will patch that.


I fixed a subwoofer that looked similar. I was going to buy a woofer repair kit, but after seeing what they consisted of I realized I already had materials to make the repair.


Tips if you do it:


Use a bag made of thick plastic for the repair strips. Cut the repair strips with enough overhang to get the proper curve to match the foam. Use a small amount of krazy glue to tack the repair strips in place. Coat the strips entirely with a thin layer of the silicone blending the patch to the foam. Enjoy.

Very bad advice. Just replace the surrounds. There are numerous potential problems with the suggestion above including failure to yeild similar compliance in the surround, keeping the voice coil properly centered in the gap, and providing a complete seal.

 

[Modeski]

After a bit more thought, I'm just going to replace the woofers themselves. The speakers are about 25 years old, so a couple of new woofers like these from Jaycar should give me another few solid years use out of them. I'll replace them in years to come, but before that I need to buy a centre, rears, subwoofer, probably a new receiver - not to mention an HDTV!


Thanks for the invaluable advice, all. Reading through this forum is a great education.

 

[Ivan Beaver]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Modeski /forum/post/18225876


After a bit more thought, I'm just going to replace the woofers themselves. The speakers are about 25 years old, so a couple of new woofers like these from Jaycar should give me another few solid years use out of them. I'll replace them in years to come, but before that I need to buy a centre, rears, subwoofer, probably a new receiver - not to mention an HDTV!


Thanks for the invaluable advice, all. Reading through this forum is a great education.

How do you know those are good replacements for the driver you currently have? Do they have the same impedance curve-NOT just the same impedance rating? Do they have the same sensitivity and freq response?


If not-then the performance will not be the same. Will it be different? Very likey YES-Better? Worse? who knows. Are you willing to take the chance?


Let's jsut say that the drivers you are looking at are "better". Does that mean they will work with the rest of the system (other loudspeaker drivers-crossover etc) You never know what will happen when you just swap drivers


I would replace the surrounds and get another 15yrs or so out of them-long before I would go and replace them with something that I have no idea how well it will perform.


But it is your system and your money.


Hope it works out for you.

 

[Chu Gai]

Do the refoam. It's fairly inexpensive and fairly easy to do.

 

[Modeski]

Thanks for your info, Ivan Beaver. I'm not going to do anything immediately, so I'll consider my options. A friend of mine suggesting spending the $30 or so to replace the surrounds and seeing how they sound then, so I'll consider it. I'll also try and find the specs for the original woofers (Pioneer A30EU80-74F made in Taiwan) and compare them to the ones I was considering buying. Damn there's a lot to think about!